Free, Free Gaza From Hamas

"[Applicants' stories of misfortune in Gaza while] heartbreaking [left me unable to issue the orders they sought to force the processing of their visa applications]."

"While this was possible in December 2023 when the Policy was issued, the Rafah crossing was closed on May7, 2024, and remains closed to this day."

"Therefore, the Applicant -- through no fault of his own or of IRCC [Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada] -- has not obtained or sent his biometrics."

"I am satisfied the Applicant has a legitimate expectation to his application being dealt with in a timely manner. However, this expectation only arises when the Applicant meets all the conditions of the Policy and provides biometric information [which he is unable to do]."

"The root cause of the Applicant's failure to provide his biometric data is of course the changed operational context, namely the closure of the Rafah crossing which made obtaining and submitting biometrics impossible."

"[All cases denied]." 

Justice Henry S. Brown, Federal Court of Canada 

 

"Canada's behaviour throughout its rollout of its own policy has been utterly cruel."

"Canada has no serious intention of providing safe refuge to Palestinians. This is why we sought justice from the court."

"The Federal Court has given the government a pass to do nothing while Palestinian visa applicants in the Gaza Strip face death and starvation."

Hana Marku, lawyer representing visa applicants

Palestinian terrorists move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.    Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

 

Ottawa had announced a "temporary public policy to facilitate temporary residency visas for certain extended family affected by the crisis in Gaza", which had taken effect on January 9, 2024. It was similar to the move taken by the Canadian government in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, to enable Ukrainian fleeing for safety to enter Canada temporarily, and to Afghans whose flight from the Taliban return to power, and the aftermath of an earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, leading to people fleeing for temporary safety abroad. 

 

Neither Ukrainians, nor Afghans have been anything but grateful to Canada for that respite from terror. Palestinians, on the other hand, have brought terror with them to Canada. While seeking temporary respite from conditions of war brought upon them by the very government they voted into office, a government comprised of fascist Islamists whose ultimate purpose was not responsible governance on behalf of the welfare of those they represented, but to succeed in destroying the Jewish state next to which the Gaza Strip stood.

 

Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. (Hassan Eslaiah/The Associated Press)

 

In wars, full-scale hostilities, it is inevitable that civilian populations bear some of the brunt of the battles taking place in the conflict that surrounds them. Israelis, long accustomed to never-ending conflict courtesy of their neighbours, have developed primary safety processes with a 'safe room' available throughout the country, either in homes or in buildings to which civilians in danger can turn. In Gaza, the only safe areas for returned fire are in countless tunnels underground which civilians are not permitted to enter, serving as havens for terrorist operatives, offering the lives of civilians in their stead. 

 

To Hamas, as well as other Palestinian and non-Palestinian Islamist terrorist groups, 'collateral damage' in the guise of dead and wounded civilians are a boon to their victimhood public relations apparatus; the larger the numbers, particularly of children and women, the more impact it has on the Western audiences who are encouraged to overlook the fact that Israel never initiates conflict, but reacts to the conflict forced upon it. And Palestinians and their Islamist cohorts in Canada make the most of that advantage in comparative collateral numbers.

 

A large group of protesters could be seen, around 1 p.m. Tuesday, near the corner of Mackay Street and de Maisonneuve Boulevard. (Aatefeh Padidar/CBC)

 

Jewish Canadians bear the consequences in Palestinian-led pro-Hamas campaigns that march through the streets of Canadian cities to elicit sympathy for the 'victims' of the 'occupation'. An occupation so-named resulting from a state being forced to monitor and prevent as many violent incursions and attempts to murder Israeli citizens as possible from an indefatigable enemy intent on its destruction. While it is Israelis who are the victims of never-ending Palestinian assaults, the Palestinians' victimhood ploy is popular in liberal, left-wing, DEI-worshipping Critical Race Theory-invested social environments throughout the West.

 

Canadian Immigration law seeks ostensibly to protect Canadians from the entry of those hostile to Western democratic justice, values and heritage. Travel visas sought by Palestinians in Gaza have on occasion failed to meet the demands of the applicants, which has led the applicants to make an effort to force officials to satisfy them, regardless of the fact that the situation has the background of a region torn asunder in war. The very same civilians in Gaza who overwhelmingly support terrorism and hatred for Jews are anxious to escape the atrocious conditions and the fallout of war brought to them by their leaders.

 

Protesters stand in front of the TIFF entrance sign during the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sept. 6, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sammy Kogan

 

At present out of a Gaza policy of 5,000 visas, 4,200 applications are still  unprocessed where the government exempted applicants from proving financial stability, requiring they leave Canada when their authorized stay elapsed. A handful of applicants, dissatisfied with the dismal pace of their visa applications, decided to take the government to court regarding the three-stage process that begins with a relative in Canada completing forms, submitting documentary proof of identification and once deemed eligible the names of applicants are forwarded to Israeli and Egyptian governments to permit access to the Rafah border crossing.

 

There biometric information is gathered at a collection facility, including fingerprinting and photographs. It is this final stage where the holdup occurs, since the Rafah crossing was closed by Israel, in an active combat zone. The cases involved were denied simply because the applicants failed to meet the threshold for a court order forcing the government of Canada to act since that required all elements of a process to be completed prior to unreasonable delay's determination.

 

A loss for the applicants, but a small victory for Canadian Jews whose compassion has its limits.  

 

Pro-Palestinian protesters gather at the Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto on Sept. 7, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Arlyn McAdorey

 

 

Palestinian Terrorist Groups Excelling in Committing Atrocities

More than 360 civilians were killed at the Supernova music festival on 7 October  EPA

"[The terrorists committed a crime against humanity because they launched a] widespread attack directed against a civilian population."

"The killing of civilians and taking of hostages were all central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought or as a plan gone awry or as isolated acts, for example, perpetrated by unaffiliated Palestinians from Gaza." 

"That [the claim that random Palestinian civilians took part in the attack] was a claim that was made very early on, it was made by Hamas in order to distance its own fighters from the abuses, and it was made by Israel to justify attacks on civilians in Gaza."

"The intentional killing and  hostage-taking of civilians was planned and highly co-ordinated."

Belkis Wille, associate director, Human Rights Watch

Palestinian militants move towards the border fence with Israel from Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 7.   Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images

 

It has taken almost a year, but finally Human Rights Watch -- never a friend of Israel -- issued a report affirming the sadistic savagery visited upon Israeli civilians on October 7 of 2023 was a deliberately planned mass slaughter of devastating proportions. Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people, kidnapping over 250 people of all ages, taking them to Gaza as human pawns, some 120 of whom remain in Hamas' hands.

Human Rights Watch has declared that the attack met the international legal definition for crimes against humanity and war crimes. Still in Gaza are 115 of the 251 abducted during the fateful early October day of dread infamy. Still being held for 'trade' agreements are 42 dead Israelis, among them soldiers captured by the terrorists on their crossing into southern Israel, who manned Israeli border observation posts. 

According to the HRW report, five different Palestinian armed terrorist groups engaged in war crimes, violating international law by killing, torturing, taking hostages, looting and committing crimes involving sexual and gender-based violence, primarily the mutilation of girls and women before they were raped and murdered. All the groups were led by the Hamas Qassam Brigades.

 

Photographs of some of those taken hostage by Hamas during the October 7 attack on Israel are seen in Tel Aviv, Israel on October 18.   Leon Neal/Getty Images

 

HRW researchers relied on a report by a special United Nations envoy who had found "reasonable grounds" to believe Hamas committed sexual violence during the attack, while claiming its own researchers had been unable to independently verify claims of sexual violence and rape. Somewhat akin to Medecines sans Frontieres claiming that since it had not actually witnessed these atrocities, it could not subscribe to their condemnation.

At 230 pages in length, the report focused on the October 7 attacks without examining actions taken by Hamas or Israel linked to the subsequent war brought to Gaza. As the terrorists launched a "widespread attack directed against a civilian population, theirs was a crime against humanity". HRW's Belkis Wille had arrived in Israel mere days following the October attack, spending  a month in research with local staff.

Palestinian terror attacks at 26 civilian sites were examined by the researchers, who spoke with close to a hundred survivors, along with 50 experts and first responders to the violent tragedy. The conclusion was reached by the researchers that following their review of hundreds of photos and videos the majority of the Palestinians taking part in the atrocities were terror-group affiliated, not random civilians who had taken advantage of the open fence.

 

A family photo hangs on the wall inside a burned-out house in Kibbutz Be'eri in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 assault by Palestinian armed groups on southern Israel, October 14, 2023. Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times

Footage of the events observing the terror operatives included those who wore civilian clothing, communicating via walkie-talkies, taking orders from commanders, which led the researchers to conclude the operatives who carried out the worst abuses, particularly in the early hours of the attack, belonged to 'armed factions'. 

Hamas issued a nine-page response to the report, elucidating that the Qassam Brigades had planned and led the attack, and the Hamas political movement was not involved; operatives, they claimed were instructed to avoid targeting civilians. A claim that even HRW found "false". The organization concluded their report by calling on Hamas to release the 120 hostages immediately, along with bodies of hostages remaining in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers inspect houses that were destroyed in a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Saturday's Hamas attack on a kibbutz in Be'eri, Israel, on October 14.

Amir Levy/Getty Images